When and if I ever do a collar I plan to make a sandwich. Relatively cheap plywood on the inside, a layer of insulation foam and a good looking hardwood on the outside. For the hardwood I would be looking for a nice grain pattern rather than the type of wood. The total thickness I would look for is about the same as the walls of the freezer.
Is it standard practice to do two layers of wood? I'm planning to keep it simple, so I had just one piece of wood in mine.
in my case, the inside cedar rectangle sits on top of the freezer, and has the same footprint as the freezer walls. The outside wood (hardwood) is wider, on 3 sides and goes lower, on the outside, with large screws thru both pieces of wood that when tighten, squeeze the freezer body from the outside and secure the collar to the freezer. So it looks nice(r) but also serves a function.
Not sure if I explained it well. Perhaps I need to take some photos.
If you don't mind that'd be great, I've heard of something like that but can't visualize it.
Should have went with a darker stain, but it was an extremely secure fit to the freezer without silicone, etc. and has worked out great.
your freezer looks very similar to mine. I was going to order that same low pressure setup you have there but I felt it might make it hard to put kegs in and out. So while I'm just going to have two pressures to play with for now, and a new manifold.
Do you find the regulators get in the way? Cause that is exactly where I was going to put mine too!
Damn, I wish I knew anything about woodworking, or knew someone who did... the two layer with a cheap 2" piece and a nicer outer layer seems ideal, but I just don't think I have the ability to make it look good. I think I'm just going to find the straightest 2x6 pieces I can and hope for the best.
Is it standard practice to do two layers of wood? I'm planning to keep it simple, so I had just one piece of wood in mine.
Is it standard practice to do two layers of wood? I'm planning to keep it simple, so I had just one piece of wood in mine.
A little bit. Actually the liquid hoses + hose barbs get more in the way. But it's a tight fit in a 6.9 cubic feet freezer. 3 regular ball lock kegs, a 20 # co2 tank and a pin lock keg converted to ball lock on the hump.
Still beyond my abilities, honestly.
What is that insulation stuff? I should probably get some and build one of those fan attached to PVC to help with circulation and condensation.
This is like the easiest option:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWy_Vlw3J4
You can always just go with picnic taps and forgo building the collar at all. A good place to start anyhow.
Can't seem to find a good idea of what to use for my collar. What's the best choice for type of wood and its thickness?
I would not use plywood in fabricating a collar as it complicates all the joinery, leaves raw edges to attach to cabinet and gaskets, and is much more susceptible to mold than solid wood.
Two-by for the core structure provides rigidity and solid attachment for hinges and clean surfaces for gaskets and attaching to the cabinet, 1-by for outside "skin", and lined with rigid foam...
Cheers!
Enter your email address to join: